Crain’s recently covered how Rahm Emmanuel’s $588 million property tax hike, which passed the Chicago City Council on October 28, is a double whammy for commercial property owners because it comes at a time when property values are rising and Cook County is re-assessing.

Did you know that properties in each Cook County township are re-assessed every three years (they refer to this as the “triennial re-assessment)?

Here’s what these triennial assessments mean for you:

If you’re in the first year of a triennial re-assessment period, it’s critical that you appeal your property taxes right away as the results will affect you for the next three years

If you haven’t appealed your property taxes in the last three years, you may be able to achieve hundreds or thousands of dollars in property tax reductions if you appeal this year

If you’ve appealed sometime in the last three years and haven’t been re-assessed since, there’s still an opportunity to achieve a further property tax reduction as other property tax variables change each year (many other properties are sold/purchased and appealed)

If you’ve appealed this year with the Assessor’s Office, you may be able to achieve further property tax reductions by also appealing with the Cook County Board of Review